They Call Me Suzuki
by deichtine
Summary: When on a scientific mission, Rodney and Carson rescue and adopt a young…being. Somewhat crackinspired and hopefully humourous! Now COMPLETE. Thanks for reading!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: _Stargate Atlantis_ and all associated characters etc are the property of MGM and all the rest, and are used here purely for the purposes of enjoyment and promoting the show we love.

Summary: When on a scientific mission, Rodney and Carson rescue and adopt a young…being. Told from that individual's POV. Crack!fic.

Author's Note: This is just a bit of crack!fic. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I am enjoying writing it! It is technically still a WIP, but the story is now basically finished, with only the epilogue left to write, though the later chapters still need some editing. I plan to post every couple of days. The chapter length – indeed, the story length – is very short for me; I tend to run more toward several pages. But then, this whole story's a bit of a departure for me, so we'll see how it turns out. Please let me know what you think!!!

There's a bit of information purposefully left out of the story for you to guess/wonder at, but if you believe you know the answer (I'm sure many of you will guess it almost right away), I would ask you not to spoil it for others by declaring it in your reviews. If you want confirmation, you can either wait to the end, or send me an email through my author profile.

By the way, I do take some artistic liberty with the sciences here and possibly with canon (for example, I'm not sure exactly when in relation to S3 the midway station was complete/in general use). But it could loosely take place almost anywhere between the initial creation of the intergalactic bridge and 3.17 Sunday.

**They call me Suzuki**

by Deichtine

I would tell you my name, but you would be unable to pronounce it. And so, I will give you the name the one called McKay gave to me: Suzuki. It is not my true name, but it will do.

I am not a native of this world, nor do I like it much. I am lonely here with no others of my kind. There are few parts of the city kept cool enough for my comfort, and most of those are forbidden to me. However, I am certain it could be worse. All alone, my parents having been killed - I think - while finding food for me, I would most likely be dead by now, had I not been brought to this place. Here, though it is not home, at least I am safe.

The fish is good, too.

But I am getting ahead of myself.

I was but a youngling when I first met McKay. Sitting there, huddled in the snow as I was, at first he didn't see me. He was a thick, tall figure in bright red that reached down almost to his knees, but he had pushed the hood back, allowing me to see his face as he studied the little tool he held, pausing now and again to turn in a circle, his eyes on the device, and correct his course. I had never seen a creature like him before.

Hungry and near death, I called out to him. Even if he were an enemy, hopefully he could offer me at least a quicker death than exposure on the ice.

I think I scared him, for upon hearing my voice he let out a loud exclamation, pressed a hand to his chest, and straightened so quickly he could almost be said to have jumped. Then he saw me, and his expression...softened. He stuffed his device into a pocket (I later learned to call his red garment a parka, though it shocked me when he first took it off to learn it was not a part of him). Slowly, he bent over and approached me. I was terrified, but too cold and too weak to move. I was at his mercy.

"Oh look, a disgustingly cute baby animal," he said gently, awkwardly holding out a hand to me.

"Help me, please," I said, though of course he could no more understand my tongue than I his (I have learned enough now to recall his words for you). He heard my voice, however, and moved a little closer.

"What are you doing out here all alone? Shouldn't your father be looking after you?" He snorted suddenly, and the sound frightened me a little more. "Isn't that just typical, this day and age, not even animals take parental responsibility seriously anymore. And what am _I_ going to do with you? I suppose you'll want me to take you with me? It's not like I'm really set up to care for you, you know." He spoke rapidly, his voice sharp in the crisp air, full of indignation yet devoid of rancour. As he spoke, he bent down and gently placed his mittened hands around my torso and lifted me high off the ground, holding me straight out in front of him to look at me.

Startled and frightened by his sudden movement, and the unaccustomed feeling of being held and off the ground, I fluttered weakly in his soft but secure grasp, crying out inarticulately. He ignored this, however, and studied me at arms' length.

"How _did_ you wind up out here all alone?" he asked softly. Finally, just as I felt I could handle the exposure to the cold wind no more, he seemed to come to a decision. He opened his red parka a short ways and tucked me in close to his chest, and the sudden warmth was heavenly. I snuggled in and he closed the garment up again, until I could only just see out - though there was little to see in this land of ice and snow. I could feel the vibrations in his chest and throat as he muttered to himself a bit. Finally he sighed and spoke more loudly, into the air, saying that he had completed his survey, that there were no energy readings here; this was a spectacular waste of his time, and that he was returning to the base. He must have had a radio, I suppose.

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer in chapter 1.

A/N: Thank you for your reviews! In this case, Suzuki is named after a person I'm sure many of you Canadian fans will recognize…

I'm never quite sure how to write Carson's speech, with his accent. Do you ignore it? Go overboard? I've done my best to find a middle road, but any constructive criticism would be happily accepted.

**They Call Me Suzuki - chapter 2**

by Deichtine

Warming and thus far unhurt, I soon stilled, learning how to relax into McKay's movements as he trudged back across the ice to the structures the humans had erected on the glacier. The soft, snug warmth reminded me of my first few days of life, huddled warm and secure against my father as he stood watch over me and we waited for my mother to return from her hunt - though of course she never did.

Soon enough we reached the cluster of shelters, and McKay stepped inside. I looked in frightened wonder at a world I could only glimpse from the opening of his parka, a warm world of grey walls and tall humans wearing a bewildering array of colourful things, all moving purposefully about.

I would never have thought there could be so many humans in the world. My ancestral memories supplied me with vague images of groups of three or four, covered in thick fur, watching us from a distance. Sometimes they pointed strange objects at us, but they seldom harmed or interfered with us. They were a curiosity, and among my people it was a continuing debate whether they were truly intelligent or not.

Any doubt of that was now gone. Though I had no idea whatsoever what they were saying or doing, or why, it was obvious that they were acting purposefully.

"Doctor Beckett!" McKay suddenly bellowed, and I felt his body shake as he stamped the snow from his boots. "Carson, I need you pronto!"

Soon enough, another human came running, puffing slightly with exertion: Dr. Beckett. He was tall - they all were, these humans, with a shock of dark feathers atop his head. He speaks differently than the others, and I still have difficulty understanding him sometimes.

He jogged into the room and looked around in confusion. "I heard you bellowing all the way from ma lab. Where's your emergency?"

McKay opened his coat wider and drew me out; instinctively I cowered down in his hands, seeking to return to the warm nest where he had carried me. But now I could see much more of my new surroundings. Beckett's face opened in surprise as he saw me.

"Dr. McKay," he said slowly, "Is that a wee baby -"

"Yes," McKay cut him off sharply. "I should think that at least would be obvious."

Beckett reached out and took me gently between his hands - my struggles to get away back to McKay unavailing. "Where'd you find it?"

From my new vantage point I could see the dark look McKay gave him. "I smuggled him here from the Vancouver Zoo," he bit off sarcastically. "Out on the glacier, where else?"

"And what about his parents?"

"No sign of them." McKay's voice broke, almost imperceptibly. "Thing was half frozen to death when I found him."

"Oh, poor wee bugger." I could feel his hand stroking my downy head softly, and I began to relax a little. These humans were strange, loud, big, but so far they seemed friendly enough. "But Rodney," Beckett continued, "as amused as I am to see you taking in the cuddly wee thing, what'd'you want me to do?"

"I don't know, check it out. Do an X-ray, take a blood sample. Whatever, I don't care, just make sure it's okay."

Carson laughed incredulously. "And just what would you have me do with said blood sample? I'm a medical doctor, Rodney, not a bloody exotic veterinarian. I don't know anything about normal birds, much less-"

He didn't get a chance to finish, as a passing young human with long, curling down - it wasn't feathers, not really, but they all had it, in different colours and shapes - had casually looked to see what Carson was holding and suddenly let out a piercing squeal that had me fluttering in a desperate bid for cover.

"Oh my god! Dr. Beckett, that is the _cutest thing ever!!!_" Suddenly her face was only a few inches from mine, her mouth and eyes wide open and teeth bared. "Look at _you!_"

Suddenly we were surrounded by humans. Now that I know the difference, reviewing the memory I realize that almost all of them were female. Strange. But at the time, all I knew was that they were all around me, staring, pushing to get closer, making strange, threatening squealing and cooing sounds. I tried to escape, but Beckett held me firmly, and I couldn't get away from them.

"Oh my God!"

"Dr. Beckett, where did you get it?"

"Look at its head!"

"Ooooh, it's so soft!"

"Look at its-"

"It's so _little_!"

I was sure they were going to eat me.

TBC


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer in chapter 1.

A/N: Thank you so much for your kind comments. I appreciate any and all feedback!!! Onward ho!

**They Call Me Suzuki - Chapter 3**

by Deichtine

Thank god for Dr. McKay. He saw me trying to get away while simultaneously trying to huddle further into the protection of Carson's hands, and he peremptorily pushed the crowd away and grabbed me from the doctor, returning me to his coat with one hand as he shooed the onlookers away with the other.

"This being an international, no, inter_galactic_, top-secret _research base_ under _strict deadlines_, I'm sure you all have WORK to DO!" he snapped. "Or maybe you've forgotten that we're leaving to go back to Atlantis in only two weeks."

One by one, reluctantly, the crowd dispersed, but I didn't fully relax. I couldn't help but think of the way a Toothed-Maw - the chief enemy of my kind - protected its kill from the others of its pack.

"I'll see what I can do. Why don't you bring him on down." Carson had a fairly decent little infirmary set up here at the research station, though of course nowhere near what he had back at the city of the ancient ones.

Rodney followed Carson through the halls, snarling at anyone who seemed too curious about what he was carrying under his coat, and when we reached the infirmary, Beckett led the way into a small private room and closed the door, and Rodney took me from his coat and set me down in the middle of the big, soft exam table.

It was the first time since he'd found me that one or the other of them hadn't been holding or touching me somehow, and even though it had only been a short time since he'd found me, I felt alone and vulnerable. The surface I was on was foreign too; white like the snow I knew so well, dry yet yielding, bouncy and hard to stand upon. My young wings outstretched for balance, I wavered a few times, a few steps, and abruptly fell forward. McKay laughed, but it wasn't a threatening sound, and set me upright again, then placed a folded up towel around me to help support me.

Beckett was pulling a second skin over his hands, which was horrifying; the gloves fit so well they had to come from one of his own kind. What kind of creatures were these? Despair shot through me.

But nothing happened. Beckett simply felt my body gently with his hands. After a moment I was able to see the substance on his hands clearly enough to tell that it was not skin after all, but some kind of...made stuff. McKay disappeared briefly while this was happening, and when he returned, he was carrying something that looked strange - some kind of paste in a flat round can - but smelled delicious. He set it down beside me, but every time I tried to bend down to it, I fell down again on the flat surface. This, of course, led to both of them dissolving into peals of laughter, complete with water in their eyes, but after a couple of tries, Carson found a small fork, and bit by bit, they fed me the fish until I could eat no more.

Had they killed me then, I would have died happy.

I stayed with them, and soon learned not to fear when they picked me up, or produced some other new tool or strange thing. Beckett even put me under some strange buzzing machines, and one time poked me for some reason with a long, sharp thing (a "needle"), but did it so gently, so carefully, that I didn't even feel it.

I seldom saw any other humans, and at first I wasn't really curious about why; I was happy the way it was. But eventually I realized that they were deliberately shielding me from the others, whether it was to hide me from them or to protect me from them I'm not sure, though it amounted to the same thing.

Having gotten past the worst of my brush with a cold death on the ice, I soon began to find the human settlement too warm. McKay and Beckett started turning the heat down in the lab for me as much as they could, though McKay never stopped complaining loudly about cold suppressing the immune system and the dangers of hypothermia. Beckett, of course, paid him no mind, and soon I learned to do the same. As time passed, I gradually began to understand some of their words. First came their names, then the name they had given to me - Soo-zoo-kee. Then other words for the things around us; "cold", "lab", "tuna", "tribal magic". This last was, according to Dr. McKay, Beckett's specialty, though every time it was mentioned Carson would simply shake his head and roll his eyes. Rodney's specialty was "physics", or maybe "science". I'm still not sure exactly what those mean.

Soon I was being left alone more and more, and eventually I was able to put together from overheard conversation that Rodney and Carson would be leaving soon to return home to some place called "Atlantis" and they were rushing to get everything ready to go. This revelation filled me with dread. What would happen to me when they went? Would they send me back out into the cold and snow to survive on my own? Would they try to return me to the flock? My parents' flock would never accept me; I knew that. I was a stranger now, and lone ones, especially males, were never allowed to join a flock - usually they were alone because their own flock had rejected them.

Or would they give me to the other humans? The ones with the hungry eyes and high voices? I would rather have taken my chances on the ice.

But then one evening Dr. McKay came into the lab where I was living, sat down in a chair, wrapped a blanket around himself, and picked me up. He placed me in his lap and began to stroke me lightly, his hand moving from my head all the way down my back. It was a lovely feeling, and instinctively I raised my head into his head.

"Not a cat, but you'll do," he mused. We sat there silently for a few moments, just enjoying the contact. He seemed unusually tired. "We're working almost around the clock to get everything done before we have to head back to Atlantis. I'm almost finished my work with the power systems, but Carson's still mired in plague tissue samples."

I nuzzled his hand again, feeling my soft down catch on the callouses on his fingers.

"I don't know what we're going to do with you, little guy," he said, and abruptly I stilled, listening hard. "I've been asking around the biology people and we can't send you back to the others." Part of me was relieved to know that he knew that; another part was still anxious to hear what he did plan to do. "We can't send you to a zoo, for obvious reasons." Whatever that was. "So what do we do? I don't trust these bumbling idiots" he waved his hand as if to encompass the entire research camp, "with you, that's for sure."

I looked up at him and asked him, "Don't you want me any more?" Of course, he didn't understand, and just patted my head with a sigh.

"Don't worry, I'll think of something."

TBC


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer and Author's notes in chapter 1.

By now I'm sure many of you have figured out what's going on here. (If indeed there are 'many' reading. Please continue to let me know what you think and to provide constructive criticism. Just a reminder, when you review - and please, make that a 'when', not an 'if' - please don't give away the ending if you think you know it!

**They Call Me Suzuki - Chapter 4**

**by Deichtine**

"This isn't going to work."

"Sure it will."

"I don't even know if I have the dosage right." Beckett's voice was plaintive, but McKay's was impatient, as though they had been through all this before. By the sound of it, they were rapidly approaching the lab.

"It won't kill him, will it?"

"Well, no, but-"

"Then it'll work."

They entered then, McKay first, Carson following, looking worried. He was carrying another one of those poking things, and McKay was carrying some sort of small insulated box with tubes and wires entering and leaving it in odd places. It was small in relation to him, anyway; it was bigger than I was at the time.

"Are you sure you want to do this? There's still time to find another way-"

McKay rounded on Beckett and waved his hands around as he was talking, the box flying about haphazardly, along for the ride. "Like what? Name me one viable alternative that doesn't involve shoving Suzuki out into the snow, abandoned to the mercy of the elements to survive on his own."

Beckett's mouth opened and closed several times before he finally threw up his hands in disgust. "I cannot, and you know it. Damn."

For once, McKay didn't shoot back some clever remark, but just set the box down on the exam table and then turned to my little nest-box in the corner of the room and scooped me up, petting me lightly before setting me down beside the box he'd brought. "There you go, little guy," he said to me fondly. "Are you ready for your little trip?"

"What trip?" I asked in confusion, looking from one to another in bewilderment.

"Aww, he said 'yes'," he said, a grin splitting his face. Over time I had learned to interpret the expression as pleasure, not threat, though it still shook me sometimes to see so many bared teeth.

"He did not, you big softy. He's got no idea what you're talking about."

McKay's eyebrows furrowed and he looked at me with a more critical eye. "I'm not so sure about that," he mused.

Beckett, who had pulled on a pair of gloves and was taking the cap off of the poking thing, checking the clear liquid inside it, stopped and looked over at him incredulously. "Ye're not serious. It's a damn cute little bugger, sure, but it's still just an animal."

It's almost funny; I had been staying with them for weeks, and this was the first time I really realized that they didn't realize that I was a sentient being. They thought I was an animal, like the Tooth-Maw or the fish we ate. I told them in no uncertain terms that I was _not _just an animal, thank you very much, and where they could put their puffed up ideas of superiority besides, but of course they didn't pay any attention beyond a few soothing pats from McKay. As annoyed as I was, it did explain a few things. And, remembering my ancestors' uncertainty whether humans were thinking beings, I had to forgive them. Eventually, when I was more mature and independent, I'd show them.

"I don't know, sometimes he seems almost to know what we're saying. Just like that. I could have sworn he was telling you off." McKay smiled that familiar lopsided smile, but stepped aside then to allow Carson to approach. "You ready?"

"As I'll ever be. You?"

McKay nodded. "The life support systems are the best I could do with what I had to hand, but they'll keep him steadily monitored until we arrive and let me know if anything goes wrong. It's even got a radio transmitter tuned to my earpiece -"

"A simple yes would be nice, Rodney."

"Yes."

"Then here goes." Carson took a deep breath, and picked me up in one hand. It wasn't as easy for him to do as it had been when McKay had first found me; I was growing fast and was now quite a bit bigger. But he cradled me against his hip gently and securely, my head facing out over his encircling arm, and I grew rather uneasy. What was this about? Neither of them ever carried me this way. I began to struggle away, but he held me firmly. "Hush now, little one. Just a bit of a nap, and when you wake up, we'll all be back home again."

What? What was he talking about? I couldn't have understood all his words properly, I thought. What was he doing?

Then he poked me with the poking thing. I felt a brief, sharp pain, a stroke on my head from McKay, and then everything went dark.

* * *

Author's notes: At the end of the story I'll apologize for some rather generous artistic license Im taking here. But to do so now would ruin the 'surprise'. :) 


	5. Chapter 5

See previous chapters for disclaimer and further author's notes.

A/N: Thanks for sticking with me and sorry for the delay! A combination of insanity at work and home, illness and hallowe'en has kept me hopping. Enjoy and as always, any and all feedback is much appreciated.

**They Call Me Suzuki** - Chapter 5

by Deichtine

I awoke to darkness, and warmth. I was inside a very small, cushioned, enclosed place and I couldn't move. I couldn't see anything. For a brief, sleepy moment I thought I was back home, snugged safe beneath my father's brood pouch; but then full consciousness returned, and I realized I was trapped - I had been betrayed.

I screamed, as loud as my young voice could manage. What had happened? What had Rodney and Carson done to me? What reason could they possibly have had for burying me alive like this?

I was shaking uncontrollably when the top of the box opened; it had been barely a moment since I had awakened, but I was still very young and easily frightened. The sudden light hurt my eyes, and my nictitating membranes slammed shut, but almost immediately the light was blocked by the form of Rodney McKay, leaning down over me with a worried face.

"You okay in there little guy?" he asked. He looked up, away from me, and called out. "Carson, get over here! He's awake."

Hurried footsteps approached, and Carson's head joined McKay's. "He wasn't supposed to wake up until tomorrow. Are the gas lines and feeding tubes in place properly?"

McKay's head left my field of vision and I heard him fiddling with the outside of the box. "Seems like it. Are you sure you got the dosage right?" His head popped back into view.

"I told ya when we first started I wasn't. I suppose I erred on the side of caution." Carson reached into the box and gently started disconnecting things that I hadn't even realized were connected to me. I was suddenly voraciously hungry, but still my fear and desire to escape overrode that need. I struggled madly in the confines of the box, but Carson gently held me still as he finished what he was doing, then put his hands around my body and lifted me out.

"Does he seem bigger to you?" McKay asked, squinting and cocking his head to the side.

"Hard to tell," Carson said. I was struggling wildly in his grip, trying to get away from him, but he held me easily. "Bigger or no, he's a mite upset."

A mite upset. A _mite upset?!_ I should say so.

"Well, I can't imagine he's all that accustomed to being held unconscious and transported across galaxies in small boxes marked _medical samples_," Rodney snorted.

He reached out and took me from Carson, sitting down and holding me in his lap. I looked around and realized that we were in an unfamiliar room with large coloured windows and glowing panels on the wall providing light. I could tell it was another infirmary, or maybe a lab, though; much of the same equipment I remembered from the other place was here also, though scattered among other, much stranger items.

"It's okay," he said, stroking me softly, but this time I was not ready to be comforted. I had no idea where I was or what had just happened. All I knew was that I had to get out. With a quick twist and a nip of his hands with the sharpest part of my beak, I escaped his grasp and fell to the floor.

I couldn't move fast on dry land; that's not what my legs were made for. I had to find somewhere to hide quickly, somewhere they couldn't follow. Suddenly, where the wall met the floor, I spied a small grate, broken and hanging slightly open, covering a cave of some sort through which air was blowing softly. Perfect! I made my way quickly over to it, used my beak to flip the broken part of the grate aside, and hopped in as fast as I possibly could.

Behind me I heard McKay and Carson recovering from their surprise, and McKay's hands closed behind my tail just as I made it into the cave's opening. He said a word then that I now understand to be quite rude.

The tunnel was dim, but not completely dark, and better in any case than the horrible box they had put me in. I moved farther in - and just in time, as McKay had gotten down on the floor and was trying to stick his arm in to get me. I could hear Carson behind him, trying to call me out and promising they didn't want to hurt me.

How could I trust them now? They had poked me with something that made me sleep, put me in a little box, and hooked up all kinds of strange things to me, and taken me somewhere completely unfamiliar. I mean, sure, I didn't know what I was getting in to when I called out to McKay on the ice, but this was going too far. Nothing in my ancestral memories could ever have prepared me for this.

Trying to get myself under control, I followed the cave as it curved around a corner, then stopped for a rest. I really was very hungry. The air moving slowly through the tunnel was dry, and my throat ached for water. I knew I couldn't stay here forever, so I moved awkwardly onward.

As I progressed, I began to hear a voice coming from another opening in the tunnel. It was a male, I thought, and he was speaking as though holding a conversation, though I couldn't hear anyone answering. As he continued, I realized he had to be using a radio.

"A what?"...

"How the hell did it get in the vent shafts? No, scratch that, how the _hell_ did it get to Atlantis?"

He breathed heavily for a moment.

"McKay. I see. Elizabeth, you know what this means."

"It _means_ you'd better start advertising for a new head of science, because I'm going to _kill_ the current one."

I stood absolutely still.

He was going to kill McKay? The thought shocked me. I was still frightened and confused by what he had done, he and Beckett, but I don't think I wanted them to _die_. Especially not McKay. Until the box thing, I had been sure he actually really liked me.

"And he told you about this when?"

"Well, be sure to remind him when you talk to him that sometimes it is _not_ better to ask forgiveness than permission."

The man sighed, a sigh with just a hint of a growl at its core. "What the hell were they thinking? Okay, I'll take care of it."

There was a pause, and then his voice came up again. "Sheppard to Zelenka. I need some of your engineers equipped with life signs detectors attuned to non-human animals to meet me in front of the infirmary. We have something loose in the walls."

"What? No, I don't think it's dangerous, but we can't let it stay in there. I'll put a couple of my men with each of yours to help with any physical work and the actual entrapment."

I didn't wait around to hear any more. The word "entrapment" was all I needed. I turned around and retreated back the way I had come.

This Sheppard. He was bringing men in to find and entrap me. And...what might be worse...he wanted to kill McKay.

He wanted to kill McKay!

A strange feeling, one I had never felt before, came over me. It rose up out of my chest, making me stand up straight and clack my beak, spreading my wings in a display of aggression though no one was there to see. I had to go back and warn them.

I had to save Rodney!


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer in chapter 1

A/N: Well, moment of truth!

**They Call Me Suzuki - Chapter 6**

by Deichtine

I didn't have much time. I waddled as fast as my feet could carry me, cursing all the while a body entirely not designed for running, especially on dry land.

The floor of the tunnel was glassy smooth.

It gave me an idea.

I was young yet, but I knew I could do it; the instinct had been with me since birth. With all my strength I ran a few steps, and launched myself forward onto my stomach, sliding down the tunnel much faster than I could have run. I didn't get very far - not nearly as far as my ancestral memories told me I would one day be able to move like this, on the snow and ice - but it was enough. I slid right out of the tunnel and between the legs of a very surprised Rodney McKay.

With an effort I flipped over onto my back to see him staring down at me, his face split into a wide grin.

"Suzuki!"

"You have to get out of here! He's going to kill you!" I shouted, twisting around and up onto my feet.

"You came back!"

I could have killed him myself. Why, why couldn't he understand? How could I tell him?

Maybe I could show him. I pointed at him with both wings, then fell over, pretending I was dead. This did seem to alarm him, but instead of realizing that he was in danger, he just picked me up and called for Carson.

I smacked him on the face. It's too bad I didn't have my adult feathers yet; down just doesn't have the same effect.

"What - ow!"

Carson ran in. He was followed quickly by another man, dressed in black, with spiky black feathers on top much like Carson's, though he wasn't as broad in his body.

"Rodney, what's wro– oh." Carson blinked.

A woman entered then; her head plumage was dark, but especially long and wavy. "I see you found him," she said, her mouth twitching.

The new man approached us, a grin playing about his features as he bent down to look at me. "It really is a penguin," he said, and at the sound of his voice, I tore myself from McKay's grasp and launched myself at him - at the man who called himself "Sheppard".

He caught me with a shout, caught by surprise as I pecked wildly at his face and throat, madly attacking the only way I knew how. He tried to push me away, but I clung as tightly as I could with the small, sharp talons on my feet until Carson finally pulled me away from him.

"Suzuki!" he was saying, his accent thick with shock. "What the hell are ye doin'?"

"He wants to kill McKay!" I said, but of course, as always, no one understood.

"Ah'm sorry, colonel," Carson said, trying to both hold me still and soothe me down at the same time. "Ah've never seen 'im like this before. 'E's usually such a cuddly, lovable little beastie."

McKay turned to Carson with an incredulous look. "Did you seriously just use the word 'beastie'?"

Why did none of them seem concerned? How could they be so calm?

"Yeah, well, loveable or not, I want it contained until we get this situation sorted out." Sheppard gave me a baleful look, made the more impressive by the blood trickling down from a beak slash on his left eyebrow.

"What harm can he possibly do, Sheppard?" Rodney asked. "He's a baby _penguin_."

Sheppard very pointedly wiped a hand over the angry tears in his cheeks, as if to make a silent point. "A penguin who has no reason to be here, in Atlantis, in the _Pegasus galaxy_."

The woman - Elizabeth Weir, I would later learn - crossed her arms over her chest. "Yes, and I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to your explanation of just how he came to turn up here in the infirmary, coincidentally just after you and Carson get back from a trip to the Antarctic base."

Carson had the grace to blush; McKay just lifted his chin defiantly. "We had to bring him. He would have died if we'd left him on his own," the scientist said. "I found him out on the ice, almost dead from hunger and the cold."

"We did do our research, you know," Carson said, a trifle more calm now as I, seeing that Rodney seemed not to be in any immediate danger, began to settle down in his arms to see how things would play out. "We couldn't give him to a zoo. There would have been way too many questions, and you need to have special permits to interfere with penguins or their eggs. It would have compromised the project."

"And we couldn't release him back into the wild," Rodney added. "Everything I've read about penguins says he couldn't have reintegrated back into his flock even if we knew where to find them. He would have died in the first cold snap."

"Ye've lived in Antarctica, John," Carson said. "You know what it's like there." Carson handed me off to Rodney and, pulling a pair of gloves out of a nearby box, began to examine the scratches I'd inflicted on Sheppard's face until the colonel waved him away.

"I'm not saying you should have let him die," John said. "Just that you should have, I don't know, _asked someone_, before _smuggling him through the intergalactic bridge to another planet!_" His voice was rising alarmingly fast, and I tensed to attack again if he made a move towards McKay.

"Gentlemen!" Weir's voice rose clearly above the worsening situation, and all eyes turned to her. "Thank you. Rodney, Carson, I presume you had a plan for what to do with him when you got him here."

They looked at each other guiltily. "Of course," Rodney said, not meeting her eyes, and Carson suddenly became very busy with daubing the blood off the colonel's face despite Sheppard's attempts to shoo him off.

"Then for the time being, until we get this situation figured out, the two of you are responsible for him. And I mean that. Any further incidents, and you will be held accountable," she said seriously. "Meanwhile, I'll have to get in touch with Stargate Command and the IOC to see if we can get this sorted out." Her mouth quirked a bit from its studious frown as she looked over at me. "He is pretty cute."

I liked her.

She left then, after giving me a quick, cautious pet, which I allowed.

Sheppard allowed Carson to lead him over to an exam bed and hopped up, and McKay followed, still carrying me. Sheppard gave me a wary look and a small smile. But I wasn't ready to buy it.

"Hey little guy, looks like we started out on the wrong - ah!"

So when Sheppard reached out a tentative hand to touch my head, I bit it with all my strength.

Later, over time, I would come to understand my error, and even to like the colonel with the impressive plumage a little, but at this point, all I wanted was to see him away from McKay.

"What are you feeding that thing?!"

A/N: All that remains now is a short epilogue.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer in Chapter 1.

**A/N:** Thank you so much to those who followed the story and waited so patiently for this epilogue, which was supposed to follow almost immediately and due to RL issues took much longer. I currently have no plans to write a sequel, but who knows? If someone can come up with a good excuse to send Suzuki off-world maybe we can come to an arrangement….

After the epilogue stay tuned for some of your questions answered.

**Child of the Ancients – Epilogue**

By Deichtine

I stand on the west pier, staring out at another beautiful sunset over the ocean as I wait for the majority of the water to stream off my feathers before I can go back inside. It has been some time now since I was brought to Atlantis, and I have grown almost all of my adult feathers, and have started to swim on my own.

My first swim caused something of a panic, I'm afraid; Dr. Zelenka was minding me (when, when will they learn that I can think for myself?) on an outing to this very pier when I felt the pull of the water, my instincts and my ancestral memories telling me without a doubt that I was born to swim. So I jumped in.

It was glorious! The water was warmer than my instincts told me it should be, but not so warm that I couldn't swim in it. I had grown accustomed to being constantly warmer than was truly comfortable. A small fish crossed my line of vision and I snapped it up without a thought – it was wonderful! I stayed under the water as long as I could manage, until my lungs were bursting and I was forced to surface.

When I returned to the pier I found Dr. Zelenka wide-eyed and panicking, speaking rapidly in another language, while Dr. McKay had appeared beside him and was regarding me with intense relief. He seemed rather agitated that I had gone off swimming on my own, and harangued me about it for quite some time. Having learned from Colonel Sheppard's example, I simply waited until he paused to take a breath and then interrupted.

"I was born for this. My ancestors have been sea birds since my earliest memories, you know."

"Yes, yes, I know, you're a sea bird. But this isn't Antarctica, you know. There could be predators, or strong currents, or poisonous shrimp-"

Poisonous shrimp? I bucked up out of the water and smacked him lightly with a wing, leaving a wet mark on his pants.

"Suzuki!" I looked at him, and he shook his head. "Okay, okay, maybe I'm going a little far. I just don't want you getting hurt, okay, little guy?"

He always did know how to hit my soft spots. I butted him softly with my head and followed him back inside.

Not long after Rodney was forced to admit that I would most likely be perfectly fine in the water and desperately unhappy if forcibly kept out of it, so I spread my wings and swam.

I said at the beginning that I didn't like this world very much, but I think I will be okay here. I'm still working on teaching these people that I can understand them. McKay is, I think, the closest to accepting it, though most of his friends think he's imagining things. There's a marine zoologist named Nathan something-or-other who's also getting suspicious, I think, so I have hope. In the meantime, between what McKay and Carson give me and what I catch for myself I am well fed and well looked after – they've even set up a little room near the west pier with extra air conditioning for me.

At times, though, like tonight, I wonder what the future holds for me. Nothing in my ancestral memories could have prepared me for this life. Once in a very great while I will see something, some object or shape, that will spark an image, a flash from amongst the very earliest of my genetic memories, but always it disappears before I can put a toe on it. For now, all is well, but despite the affection of Dr. McKay and Dr. Beckett, and the increasing camaraderie with Colonel Sheppard, I am alone here – there are no others of my kind with whom to swim, or talk, or sing. It will be some time yet before I must seek a mate, but how? Perhaps in time I will learn to make McKay understand, and he will bring me back – or bring a wife to me.

A vision fills me, of a beautiful female standing beside me and a handsome young chick in grey and black leaning into me as we rejoice in the return of his mother from her march, and I know I will not be content to stay here alone forever. But for now…

For now… I'm happy.

THE END

Again, thanks for reading and especially for your comments and questions. Here are some answers to some of the questions I've been asked as this went along.

_Is Suzuki really a penguin and/or is he from Earth?_  
Yes. He is an Antarctic Emperor penguin from Earth. McKay found him while on a visit to the Antarctic base.

_But he has ancestral memories and is sentient. What's that about?  
_This is purely artistic license. I kind of had to make him sentient for the story to be told from his POV, and the ancestral memories thing just kind of happened. Looking at how penguins behave, returning to their rookeries year after year and so on, I figured that if we're making them intelligent, ancestral memories of some sort were plausible.

_Why Suzuki?  
_Suzuki is not, alas, named for the car. He is named after David Suzuki, a prominent Canadian environmentalist and host of "The Nature of Things", a long-running nature documentary series on Canadian television. I'm not much of an environmentalist myself and don't always agree with his politics, but it seemed like the kind of name McKay might pull out of the air.

If anyone wishes to borrow Suzuki and explore some of his further adventures, please email me and I will most likely be very happy and honoured to say "of course!". Some ideas – Suzuki gets left behind on Lantea after the end of S3; Suzuki at the death of Carson; Suzuki wants and/or gets a girlfriend; Suzuki goes off-world.


End file.
